New Player Guide: What is a Zone?

New to World of Warcraft? This guide will explain the basics of a zone—what are the various areas and how each is important.

What is a Zone?

A zone is a unique region in World of Warcraft, with a distinctive environment that sets it apart from other zones. Each zone furthers the story of World of Warcraft in some way, and is visually-themed around the related lore. For example, the areas around the human city Stormwind have similar architecture—Wald von Elwynn, Westfall, Dämmerwald, Rotkammgebirge.

Most zones you can freely travel to via mount or flightpath, out in the open world. A small subset of zones (dungeons, raids, PvP), have additional requirements but these are not the first zones you will encounter playing.

Zones are filled with friendly NPCs in towns, and enemy NPCs who are needed to complete objectives. In the earliest zones, the surrounding area will be mostly friendly, and the enemy mobs will not be that challenging.

On Wowhead, you can browse a full list of zones, organized by level, continent and type. Here are links to our zones in Kalimdor and Zones in Eastern Kingdoms. You can also type in the name of a zone in the search box at the top right of a page to visit zone pages like Wald von Elwynn. Here you will find screenshots, helpful comments, and a list of related NPCs and quests in the zone. We also have a map on zone pages with various things you can track, represented by a row of icons underneath the map. For example, you can click on the winged boot to bring up all the flight paths in a zone, or the Hearthstone to bring up the locations for all of the Inns.

Types of Zones

There are several types of zones in World of Warcraft:

Questing Zone: This is the first type of zone you will encounter. In this type of zone, you will complete quest objectives by killing hostile mobs and looting special items. These objectives also have a story component, culminating in a climatic event when you complete all parts of a zone. We have an overview of 1-60 questing zones to help you plan your path. If you are stuck completing a quest in game, simply type the name of the quest into Wowhead and a page will pop up with a map, screenshots, and useful tips on how to complete the quest.

City: These zones are friendly areas you can explore, with shops and monuments, much like a real city. You'll reach your first city around Level 10. Each city is the political center for a faction in Warcraft, so you can immerse yourself a bit in the culture and lore. There are also some special things you can do in a city like sell items on the Auction House and access your bank to store spare items, which is covered in more detail in the World of Warcraft City Guide.

Instance: These zones you will encounter periodically from level 10 onwards. Instance zones are group content that require you to be certain levels to unlock. There are several types of instanced content: dungeons (small groups), raids (large groups), and Player-vs-Player battlegrounds. If you want a change of pace from questing zones, these provide an alternative way to get experience at higher levels. The first dungeons you will encounter are Die Todesminen and Der Flammenschlund.

Continent: This term is used to describe the large landmass a particular zone is in. For example, the city of Stormwind is located in the continent of Eastern Kingdoms. As a new player, you will mainly stay on either Kalimdor or Eastern Kingdom, based on what starting race you pick. As you level up, you will be able to quest on additional continents—Outland, Northrend, Pandaria, and Draenor.

Friendly/Hostile Zones

Some zones are friendly to either Alliance or Horde players, due to lore reasons. For example, a Horde player would be attacked trying to visit Stormwind. However, as a new player, you will be surrounded by friendly zones--the hostile zones are arranged to be farther away from your starting area. Wowhead zone pages will tell you if a zone is intended for one faction, or both.

You do not need to worry about other players killing you. On most types of realms, both factions of players are peaceful by default. In addition, each city, town, and low-level area has guards which attack any player actively looking for a fight. If you are lost, and you seem to be heading towards a town but the guards have red nameplates and seem attackable, you have reached a town intended for the opposite faction.

Areas in an Outdoor Zone

This next part breaks down the different areas you will encounter in an outdoor questing zone:

The town: A town is a friendly area in a zone. There are several buildings and houses, including an Inn, which you can sit in to gain rested experience. There are also NPCs that let you repair your gear. There are NPCs to add flavor to a zone who sell themed food and drink, weapons, armor. These are more to add character to the zone and you don’t need to buy any of these items, although you can sell items taking up space in your bags to them. There are even some NPCs you can simply talk to, who will tell you more about the area.

Flight Master: Speak to this NPC to learn a new flight path. Talking to this NPC will then open up a map of all the places you can fly to. You can only fly to areas that you’ve found the Flight Master at, so don’t skip talking to them. Flying from area to area is faster than walking or riding.

Quest Hub: As you progress through questing and story lines, you will come across groups of friendly NPCs farther away from the town. These areas do not have as many amenities as a real Town, but you can turn in quests and possibly repair and access a mailbox.

The Road: Stay on the road to travel between destinations. The road is a friendly area where hostile mobs won’t spawn. However, if you are too low-level for the area, your presence may attract hostile mobs from farther away, who may run towards the road.

Caves and Mountains: Some quest objectives may seem close by on your map, but may require some extra travel because they are high above on a mountain or underground in a cave. Caves may seem a bit daunting to navigate at first, but there are special maps, as well as the minimap, to keep all the paths straight.

Enemy mobs: Most of an outdoor zone will have hostile mobs which are required for different quests as you progress through a zone. Killing these mobs will grant experience. However, it is more efficient to simply kill the amount of required mobs and head back to town to turn in your quest, instead of killing infinite mobs. It is also efficient to do all the quests in a particular area at one time, instead of traveling back and forth.

Rares: Some enemy mobs will have a fancy silver portrait around their image. These have better-than-expected loot and experience rewards. They are not required for quest objectives but are worth defeating for their rewards.

Elites: Some enemy mobs will have a fancy gold portrait around their image. These are mostly found in instances, like dungeons or raids. When you see this portrait, it’s a hint that you’re in an area that requires a group to defeat.

Treasure Chests: As you level up, you will discover chests out in the world. These may have pleasant surprises, like gear, food or drink!

Natural Environment: Some areas may not appear to serve any particular purpose, but are very pretty and set the mood for the zone! Waterfalls, mountain vistas, small houses, gardens, etc. Take the time to relax and enjoy the scenery, and take a screenshot if you like the area.

World of Warcraft Map

The in-game map helps you navigate around a zone. To open the big map, press the letter M. This will open up a map, along with quests you have in that zone on the right-hand side. You can view different maps by using the navigation menu in the map panel. If you move while the map is open, the map will dim, allowing you to see your surrounding better.

There is also a minimap at the top right of the screen which shows what’s in the immediate nearby area. You can track specific things on your map. To open up tracking, click on the magnifying glass by your map. You are able to track the location of Flight Masters, Innkeeper, Reagents, Profession Trainers, Repair Vendors, and more.